London band IC1s are on a mission to get people out from behind their sofas and turning their radios back on’, and with the imminent release of new single ‘Levitate’ that just might happen.
Frontman Daniel Coburn talks to the Live4ever Ezine about why things are happening so quickly for the band, the origin of Ic1s, and trying to decide whether it’s alright to wear sunglasses on stage.
Hi Dan. You’ve been together three years, but this line up has been together a year…
I started writing songs about three years ago, got a band together, went out and played a few gigs. You know, travelling miles to play but never actually getting anywhere. I think my ambitions outgrew a couple of the members of the band and by mutual consent, and with the up-most respect, they left. As far as I am concerned the band is 12 months old, everything has fallen into place with arrival of John and Jesse, we’ve become a tight family.
…and where did the name come from, is it like East 17 – London thing – or something completely different?
It’s exactly like East 17, but I am not retarded enough to run myself over, I don’t even know how that would work.
I really like the new single ‘Levitate’. Is it out now?
Yeah ‘Levitate’ is gonna be the single, it’s not quite out yet, 15th of September I believe, so you guys have got plenty of time to plug it for us. We like to think it’s the perfect pop song and we know what we are on about because our set is full of them. All our fans love it, now it’s time for everyone else.
…and that’s not a bad voice you have there, as well as great lyrics, who writes in the band?
Well, I guess I’ll have to take the majority of the credit for songwriting, some of the earlier tunes were part written by my brother in law, he’s a bit of a ghost writer but of course to give it that IC1s sound, the boys have to put their spin on it. So no matter how great the song I take into the studio is, we always leave with something 100 times better than I could have imagined. That’s IC1s though, 100 times better than brilliant.
The band have played some real good gigs and support slots with bands like The Charlatans, The Cribs and Calvin Harris to name a few, IC1s have built a pretty good live reputation over the last year wouldn’t you say?
Yeah, the last year began with a light breeze that has grown into a full-on
hurricane and we are just enjoying it. For whatever buzz there is about us, it’s no false alarm. We got the songs, we got the experience and we’ve got a strong team behind us now that believe in us as much as we do, and that is why it works. It’s looking strong.
Alan McGee (“IC1s I have watched a load of times this past year and Mr Coburn has it all; he can sing, has the tunes, has the right attitude, and more importantly the songs”) knows a thing or two about a good band, he really likes IC1s doesn’t he, as well as Mani.
I met Alan, a couple of years back and well, he’s a man who knows what he’s
talking about, right? He’s got nothing but great things to say about us, I really
like him. Our drummer Andy met Mani at Friends Of Mine Festival and quite rightly told him it was his duty to come and watch us the next day, he did and he loved it. We clashed with Ocean Colour Scene, which I was quite worried about in terms of the crowd share, I needn’t had, I heard four people were watching them with the rest of the festival watching us. We were signing autographs whilst Simon Fowler was probably getting the bus home. Don’t get me wrong, I love OCS, but I love us more.
Sounds like 2011 is working out great for you and the band; reviews, gigs, the new single, so have there been any dilemmas or has it been all cookies and milk? Seriously though, after three years of IC1s does it feel like you’re getting
there..?
I think the biggest dilemma we’ve faced is whether or not to wear sunglasses on stage, is it cool to wear sunglasses at 10pm on a Thursday night in December at The Barfly? Things have been easy because we always believed it was going to happen for us, belief will take you far. There is still a lot of hard work to go, in fact the real work starts now…Wayfarers or Aviators?
Have you come from a particular music scene round your way in North West London, is there anything happening in the city that excites you musically?
The music scene round our way has never really taken off the way I would
have hoped, it’s stop and start. Apart from a couple of bands who I feel could make something of it, every other band are all trend chasers – “oh I heard this on the radio, lets sound like that, do you know any xylophone players?’
So by the time they got it together, the new thing has been and gone and they’re old hat before it’s even warmed your head. Some had five new bands a week. We’ve just stuck to what we knew. I knew people who were laughing at us because we didn’t have synth or something. They can do their laughing, manically in the studio when their trying to sound like us.
Finally what are you most looking forward to for the rest of the year with the band?
I just wanna keep the foot on the gas, this year has been nothing but progress and I fully expect next year to follow suit. I’m looking forward to touring, I’ve dreamt of nothing else for as long as I can remember. I just wanna get out there and show people now. Can’t wait to get in the studio and put these tracks down too. Music is in dire straits, we are going to get people out from behind their sofas and turning their radios back on.
(Carl Stanley)
